TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- Saturday marks two years since an EF4 tornado ripped through and destroyed 12 percent of the city on April 27, 2011. At least 53 people in Tuscaloosa were killed in the storm.
Inside the city limits, more than 5,300 homes were destroyed or
severely damaged. Sixty-one percent of those homes were rentals. More
than 50 percent of those homes had median incomes of $27,000 or less.
Today we look ahead and the city's progress in its recovery and its
continued plan to rebuild.

Some of the most striking images from the April 27, 2011, tornadoes came from Rosedale Court, a 188-unit public housing development just south of the University of Alabama.

One woman was killed at the complex and many others injured after the storm destroyed or heavily damaged around 100 units of the 188-unit complex. Just before reaching the complex, the storm had destroyed structures including the city's Richard A. Curry Building, a 345,000 municipal facility housing several city departments, and the Salvation Army's office and shelter on Greensboro Avenue.

Two years after the storm, the Tuscaloosa Housing Authority has families back in Rosedale Court and plans to have the second phase of the development complete by the end of the year. A third phase will be designed for senior citizens. The city is planning to allocate millions of dollars in federal disaster recovery funding for major infrastructure improvements and other projects in the area.

Tuscaloosa City Council President Harrison Taylor, whose District 1 includes Rosedale and Forest Lake, said returning families have been excited to come back and that the housing authority is doing a good job of screening residents.

"I think they're getting along well there, and they have a strict code like never before," Taylor said. "It's a close-knit family over there. I didn't know until people had to move out, but some had trouble adjusting living anywhere else."

Taylor said he's encouraged by plans moving forward for Rosedale Court Phase III, a 128-unit senior housing development planned to replace Robertson Towers, located on 19th Avenue in downtown Tuscaloosa.

"That's big for our senior citizens on a fixed income," Taylor said. "It's a community all to themselves."

About $6.81 million in HUD funding has been suggested to be paired with a $5.44 million Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program grant toward a 10th Avenue corridor project that would include upgrades for roads, water, sewer and storm drainage. It would also go toward construction of the City Walk pedestrian and bicycle trail on 10th Avenue from Greensboro Avenue to 15th Street.

Taylor said he and other officials see 10th Avenue's role as a gateway to the city and the university because it runs directly to Bryant-Denny Stadium and the UA campus from Interstate 359.

Planned upgrades to Rosedale and Harmon parks are part of the Tuscaloosa Forward Generational plan, a strategic plan that includes many of the projects recommended for federal funding. Parks would receive $1 million that could go to those parks and Jaycee Park in Alberta under the recommendations presented by the mayor Tuesday.

Other plans include $1 million to locate the EDGE business incubator, a partnership between the city, the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, the University of Alabama, at the old armory site across from Rosedale Court. The city also wants to give the Salvation Army $500,000 to assist the organization in rebuilding its homeless shelter destroyed in the storm.

"I'm just so glad out of a tragedy something good can come out of it -- people coming together and working together," Taylor said. "That next day after the police took me around, I thought it was the end of world for Tuscaloosa. But Tuscaloosa has shown great resilience, and we're coming back."